Samantha Carter was biting her lip. It was about the only way that she could express her concern in their self-imposed silence. She sat in the dark with Bra'tac at the tunnel's entrance. They had heard the commotion outside and knew that the escape had been discovered.
She prayed that Daniel and Teal'c were safe and hadn't been recaptured. It had been a long time since Daniel had started back down that tunnel to retrieve Teal'c. She only hoped they were okay.
Bra'tac hadn't looked too worried so that had comforted her, that was when she could see his face. It was dark now, only the shadows from the planet's three moons lit the tunnel entrance. She hadn't risked using her small flashlight for fear the light might be seen.
She hoped the Colonel was doing okay. She could no longer see him in the darkness. Last time she had checked there had been no change. He was still pretty dead to the world.
Now that the moons had risen, the outside world was highlighted in shadows. Well, when they did find it was safe to leave, at least they would be able to find their way. There was still a risk that they would be discovered in the moonlight, but at least the odds were better than in full daylight, especially now that the search parties would be out.
Something touched Samantha's arm in the darkness. Her heart jumped up into her throat. She realized a second later it was Bra'tac. Luckily she wasn't a screamer she thought, as her pulse rate began to slow back down to normal. 'Had he heard something?' she listened carefully, she didn't hear anything outside. She could just make out Bra'tac's silhouette in the dim shadows. He seemed to facing toward the inside of the tunnel.
She listened again. This time she heard it too, a very soft sound coming from the direction of the cavern. She held her breath. 'This had to be them.' She scrambled over Bra'tac, being careful of his bad leg. She had to risk the light. If it were Jaffa, it didn't matter, they would be caught in mere seconds anyway. She took out her small flashlight, putting the beam directly into her hand and keeping her back to the outside to try to block as much of the light as possible in either direction.
She peered down the tunnel to see the startled and then relieved face of Daniel Jackson.
The team waited a few more hours trying to get as much rest as possible. In what would be on Earth the very early hours of the morning, they took off. Major Carter figured they still had several hours before daybreak.
They abandoned the scooters in the tunnel and loaded Teal'c onto a modified backboard with handles at one end and wheels at the other. Daniel had taken the straps from his pack to make a type of harness for himself to help pull it along.
Teal'c didn't see how the smaller man was going to be able to do this. He knew how much effort it had taken Daniel just to get him through the tunnels. But Teal'c also recognized that determined stubborn look in Daniel Jackson's eyes. It would be useless to argue with him in this state. If he could, that was, they were still observing strict silence.
Jack had once said something about that look of Daniel's reminding him of a mule on his grandfather's farm. Teal'c wasn't sure what farm animals had to do with Daniel Jackson, but then again there were a lot of times he didn't understand O'Neill. The Tau'ri could be very strange at times.
Major Carter had fashioned a crutch of sorts for Master Bra'tac, since he had one good leg and could 'walk' out. That left only Colonel O'Neill. He was still unconscious so they decided to put him on the travois with Teal'c. The only other option was to have Sam fireman-carry him out. O'Neill wasn't as heavy as Teal'c, but he was big enough Sam would never make it all the way back to the hiding place, and no amount of determination was going to make up for it. Teal'c was just going to have to hold O'Neill there.
When they had made it 500 feet away from the mountain entrance, Daniel tied a couple of large branches to the end of the travois. Meanwhile, Sam went back and covered up their trail.
Daniel took the left side of the travois while Sam took the right.
Together they pulled the travois as they took off for the shelter of the abandon buildings. The team would need a good place to hide before morning came and the patrols would be out in force. There was no way to out run them at the pace they would have to travel. They would just have to wait until nightfall and then attempt to get to the gate as soon as possible the next day.
Sam was sure that General Hammond would know they were in trouble by now. They were two days overdue. Originally it had been a rescue mission to free Bra'tac from one of the Goa'uld underlords. He had been captured and was being held for the System Lords' arrival. It looked now like it had been a trap for SG-1. The Goa'uld must have guessed that Teal'c would not let his former master suffer at their hands. They might have caught them all, if it hadn't been for the famous Jackson luck.
When they were camping that first night, a small native lizard had run without warning across the archeologist's hand. He almost immediately slumped into a coma-type state, where his breathing became shallow and his heart rate slowed down. The creature's skin had some kind of paralyzing agent, luckily it didn't stop any of Daniel's internal organs. Since they didn't know if it was safe to move him, Sam had stayed behind with Daniel; Colonel O'Neill and Teal'c had gone for help only to be turned back at the gate when they saw the large amount of Jaffa.
While attempting to check out Bra'tac's condition, they had walked into the Goa'uld's trap. Daniel had awakened two days later, a bit stiff and confused, but otherwise fine. Fortunately, the Goa'uld would never assume that SG-1 would split up, so they never even looked for Sam and Daniel.
When their group arrived at the abandoned complex, Sam chose one of the central buildings. Hoping that if the Jaffa searched the buildings they would start at the outer most ones first. She was the first to break the silence.
"Is everyone okay?" She glanced around at the group. Teal'c had surrendered Jack to her and now she was in the process of propping his back up against one of the walls.
"Yes…as okay as the situation allows…" Bra'tac answered, himself leaning against a wall. "…but for how long?…surely this place will be searched."
"Daniel and I are going to look for a place where we can hide until nightfall."
Daniel leaned over Teal'c, rubbing his shoulders.
"Teal'c are you okay?…Did I hurt you?" concern coloring the young man's voice. He was thinking about all the jarring the bigger man had gone through that day with those broken legs.
"It is nothing…much preferable to being dead at the hands of the Goa'uld. Thank you, Daniel Jackson…I am fine."
Somehow that answer did little to alleviate Daniel's worry, who was still looking at Teal'c with concern.
"I am fine." Teal'c repeated the assurance when he saw the look on the young scientist's face. Then Teal'c's face took on an equally intense look as he watched Daniel. "…it is good to see you well."
Hidden in there somewhere was a question, Daniel just knew.
"Yeah…Well…Sam says I just woke up…" indicating his confusion over the past events himself, with a wave of his hands.
*** to be continued ***
